Motorsport: Brawn leads new order as Button snatches victory

Brawn GP's Jenson Button celebrates winning the Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park racetrack in Melbourne. Photo / AP

MELBOURNE - Briton Jenson Button clinched the Australian Grand Prix from Brawn GP teammate Rubens Barrichello as Formula One's new order was previewed in an historic moment at Albert Park.

Button's start-to-finish victory from Barrichello marked the first time that a new team has finished one-two since the great Juan Manuel Fangio led home a Mercedes quinella with Karl Kling in the 1954 French Grand Prix.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli inherited third - then lost it to Lewis Hamilton following a stewards' penalty - when disaster struck young German Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel was headed for second spot in his Red Bull when he collided with the BMW of Poland's Robert Kubica with three laps remaining.

Compounding his problems, stewards fined Vettel US$50,000 ($88,261) for driving around after he had seriously damaged his car and dropped him 10 grid places for next weekend's Malaysian GP for forcing Kubica off the track.

Trulli was penalised 25 seconds for overtaking during the safety car period, forcing him to give up his podium spot to Hamilton and dropping him out of the points altogether, down to 12th.

Mark Webber's hopes ended at the first corner when he was slammed by Barrichello, who was catapulted into the Red Bull after the Brazilian took a heavy hit from Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren. Webber struggled on to finish 13th and last.

Button's win ended a lengthy drought - he won his only other grand prix at Hungary in 2006 and has now chalked up two victories in 154 races.

But, with the previously dominant McLarens struggling and both Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa failing to finish, the race hinted strongly at a changing of the guard.

The Brawns had dominated pre-season testing after emerging from the old Honda operation, largely because Honda had given up on last season midway through the year to concentrate on producing a competitive machine for 2009.

Hence the car had a huge developmental jump on its rivals. The bitter irony was Honda's December exit due to the economic crisis just as the team sprang to prominence.

Button, who was unsure whether he and Barrichello had a future in F1 a few months ago, described his trek to the top of the podium as "a fairy tale ending, really, to the first race of our career together.

"I hope that we can continue this way and I know that we are going to fight every moment we can to keep this car competitive with the limited resources we have to keep it at the front.

"The whole team has done a great job and this has got to continue because this is where we deserve to be and we've worked very, very hard for this.

"I know there is more room for improvement from both myself and the team, which is the exciting thing."

Button paid special tribute to Ross Brawn, the English technical genius who was the driving force behind Ferrari's success with Michael Schumacher before he moved to Honda last year.

"You don't find Ross speechless very often but the last 15 minutes I would be surprised if he's said a word."

Button blasted away from pole position, pulling out a five-second gap on the field within two laps but, behind him, Barrichello was in the wars, surviving a hit with Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari. The Brazilian survived but the Finn failed to finish.

Later the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa pulled out, while Nelson Piquet's race ended when he and Nico Rosberg's Williams touched wheels.

Button said he might have led from the start but conditions were hard in the setting sun towards the end and earlier when he trundled around behind a safety car for half a dozen laps when Kazuki Nakajima put his Williams into a wall.

"The first few laps of the race were great for me and I could settle into a pace but when the safety car came out I struggled massively to get heat into the tyres. "The car was hitting the ground and just before the safety car pulled in I flat-spotted the tyre pretty severely.

"We were struggling quite a bit with vibration and with the poor light as well. "It was strange - for such an open circuit you could not see the exit of the corners at all." Button said.

Barrichello said the Brawn was not only quick but solid - and he said the controversial rear diffuser said to help with the pace was broken in the hit so played no part in the car's speed.

"It's strong, very strong because I was hit from behind, I hit someone in front and it was a tough race," Barrichello said.

"And one thing I can say that with the crash, if people think our car is only good with the diffuser, that big hit from the McLaren behind broke the diffuser completely.

"For me, I never thought I could finish on the podium after the start."

- AAP